LibriVoxLibriVox is a group of worldwide volunteers who read and record public
domain texts creating free public domain audiobooks for download from
their website and other digital library hosting sites on the internet.
It was founded in 2005 by Hugh McGuire to provide "Acoustical
liberation of books in the public domain"[2] and the LibriVox
objective is "To make all books in the public domain available, for
free, in audio format on the internet".[3]
On 6 August 2016, the project completed project number
10,000.[4][5] and from 2009–2017 was producing about
1,000 items per year.[6] Most releases are in the English
language, but many non-English works are also available. There are
multiple affiliated projects that are providing additional content.
LibriVoxLibriVox is closely affiliated with
Project GutenbergProject Gutenberg from where the
project gets some of its texts, and the
Internet ArchiveInternet Archive that hosts
their offerings.

Can the net harness a bunch of volunteers to help bring books in the
public domain to life through podcasting?

”

— Hugh McGuire

LibriVoxLibriVox was started in August 2005 by Montreal-based writer Hugh
McGuire, who set up a blog, and posed the
question.[7][8] The first recorded book[9] was
The Secret AgentThe Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad.
The main features of the way
LibriVoxLibriVox works have changed little since
its inception, although the technology that supports it has been
improved by the efforts of its volunteers with web-development skills.

Etymology of LibriVox[edit]
LibriVoxLibriVox is an invented word inspired by
LatinLatin words liber (book) in
its genitive form libri and vox (voice), giving the meaning BookVoice
(or voice of the book). The word was also coined because of other
connotations: liber also means child and free, independent,
unrestricted. As the
LibriVoxLibriVox forum says: "We like to think LibriVox
might be interpreted as 'child of the voice', and 'free voice'.
Finally, the other link we like is 'library' so you could imagine it
to mean Library of Voice."[10]
There has been no decision or consensus by
LibriVoxLibriVox founders or the
community of volunteers for a single pronunciation of LibriVox. It is
accepted that any audible pronunciation is accurate.[11]

Organization and funding[edit]
LibriVoxLibriVox is a volunteer-run, free content, Public Domain project. It
has no budget or legal personality. The development of projects is
managed through an Internet forum, supported by an admin team, who
also maintain a searchable catalogue database of completed works.
In early 2010,
LibriVoxLibriVox ran a fundraising drive to raise $20,000 to
cover hosting costs for the website of about $5,000/year and improve
front- and backend usability.[12] The target was reached in 13
days, and so the fundraising ended and
LibriVoxLibriVox suggested that
supporters consider making donations to its affiliates and partners,
Project GutenbergProject Gutenberg [13] and the Internet Archive.[14]

Production process[edit]
Volunteers can choose new projects to start, either recording on their
own or inviting others to join them, or they can contribute to
projects that have been started by others. Once a volunteer has
recorded his or her contribution, it is uploaded to the site, and
proof-listened by members of the
LibriVoxLibriVox community.
Finished audiobooks are available from the
LibriVoxLibriVox website, and MP3
and Ogg
VorbisVorbis files are hosted separately by the Internet Archive.
Recordings are also available through other means, such as iTunes,
and, being free of copyright, they are frequently distributed
independently of
LibriVoxLibriVox on the Internet and otherwise.

Content[edit]
LibriVoxLibriVox works per month 2005–2011
LibriVoxLibriVox only records material that is in the public domain in the
United States, and all
LibriVoxLibriVox books are released with a public
domain dedication.[15] Because of copyright restrictions,
LibriVoxLibriVox produces recordings of only a limited number of contemporary
books. These have included, for example, the 9/11 Commission Report
which is a work of the US Federal Government therefore in the Public
Domain.
The
LibriVoxLibriVox catalogue is varied. It contains much popular classic
fiction, but also includes less predictable texts, such as Immanuel
Kant's
Critique of Pure ReasonCritique of Pure Reason and a recording of the first 500 digits
of pi. The collection also features poetry, plays, religious texts
(for example, English versions of the
KoranKoran and books from various
translations of the Bible) and non-fiction of various kinds. In
January 2009, the catalogue contained approximately 55 percent fiction
and drama, 25 percent non-fiction and 20 percent poetry (calculated by
numbers of recordings). By the end of June 2019, the most viewed item
(7M) was
The Adventures of Tom SawyerThe Adventures of Tom Sawyer in a 2006 solo recording by John
Greenman.[1]
Around 90 percent of the catalogue is recorded in English, but
recordings exist in 31 languages altogether (as of
February 2010[update]). Chinese, French and German are
the most popular languages other than English amongst volunteers, but
recordings have also been made in languages including
UrduUrdu and
Tagalog.

Reputation[edit]
LibriVoxLibriVox has garnered significant interest, in particular from those
interested in the promotion of volunteer-led content and alternative
approaches to copyright ownership on the Internet.
It has received support from the
Internet ArchiveInternet Archive and Project
Gutenberg. Intellectual freedom and commons proponent Mike Linksvayer
described it in 2008 as "perhaps the most interesting collaborative
culture project this side of".[16]
The project has also been featured in press around the world and has
been recommended by the BBC's Click, MSNBC's The Today Show,
Reason,[17] Wired,[18] the US
PC MagazinePC Magazine and the UK
Metro and Sunday Times[19] newspapers.

Quality[edit]
A frequent concern of listeners is the site's policy of allowing any
recording to be published as long as it is understandable and faithful
to the source text.[20] This means that some recordings are of
lower audio fidelity; some feature background noises, non-native
accents or other perceived imperfections in comparison to
professionally recorded audiobooks.[21][22] While some
listeners may object to those books with chapters read by multiple
readers,[23] others find this to be a non-issue or even a
feature,[24][25][26] though many books are
narrated by a single reader.